Intel® Xeon® processor

by Holger Eriksdotter 1

The IT environment of the future will be software-definedThere is a broad consensus among IT experts that data centres do not currently

have the infrastructure required to meet the challenges of digitisation. The

most promising model for improving the dynamism and agility of server,

storage and network systems is software-defined infrastructure (SDI).

One area of SDI that is of particular interest at the moment is software-defined

storage (SDS). Although the spread of SDI is slowly gaining momentum, a recent

study by IDC predicts a significant increase in pace in the near future.

Software-defined storage systems from Lenovo

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Although SDI is still in its infancy, companies can already see its potential for implementing cloud solutions, reducing operational costs and improving the

efficiency of IT systems. According to the IDC study Software Defined Infrastructure in Germany 2016,

“The SDI transformation in data centres is well under way”. This study is based on a survey conducted last year, in which 252 IT decision-makers at German companies with more than 250 employees were asked for their views on SDI, and their plans for it.

The “software-defined” concept is currently being applied in a number of different areas. Under the umbrella of software-defined infrastructure (SDI a.k.a. SDX) are the subcategories of software-defined data centre (SDDC), software-defined network (SDN) and software-defined storage (SDS). What they all have in common is the fundamental concept of virtualising data centre resources (server, storage and network systems), equipping them with automation and managing them in a centralised manner.

A new dimension in agility

The main purpose of SDI is to create an infrastructure in which all resources are combined under a single abstraction layer, creating a whole new level of agility. As often happens when new technologies emerge, both

SDI and its individual elements and components are still in a state of flux, with the various providers all taking different approaches to the technology. “The technology and the market are at different stages of maturity, and ecosystems are only just emerging now,” says IDC senior consultant Matthias Zacher. “There is fierce competition and battling for position in some areas.”

One certainty is that users will have to seriously evaluate SDI and, according to the IDC study, step up their plans to adopt it. The benefits of SDI are particularly apparent when facing the growing challenges of digital transformation. The successful implementation of emerging technologies such as dynamic cloud services, big data, the Internet of Things (IoT) and business analytics is largely dependent on the availability of more agile and dynamic IT environments.

Of course, it is unrealistic to expect companies to immediately transition their entire legacy IT infrastructure to a software-defined model. Instead, most companies find their way into SDI through projects that focus on a particular area of their IT infrastructure. In many cases, that area is storage – for two main reasons. Firstly, the huge flood of data created by digitisation is forcing businesses to invest in new storage capacity. Secondly, traditional storage systems are unable to provide the flexibility and dynamism required for digital applications and business models.

The benefits of SDI are particularly apparent when facing the growing challenges of digital transformation.

Software-defined IT can aid companies with their digital transformation plans, improving everything from business speed and agility to data storage.

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Many companies consider the rapid growth of data to be the single biggest challenge for their storage environments.

According to a recent study by Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), many companies consider the rapid growth of data to be the single biggest challenge for their storage environments. However, this challenge will not be overcome through a simple linear upgrade. As the study’s author, Scott Sinclair, notes: “Traditional storage architectures once thought to be scalable are no longer sufficient.”

Sinclair examines the concept and potential of SDS in the white paper Lenovo: Software-defined Storage for a New Generation of Information Technology. The growing flood of information from technologies such as business analytics, IoT, social media or big data is changing not

only the quantity, but also the quality of digital content. “As workloads evolve and increase, IT organisations require a storage architecture that can also evolve and change at a pace demanded by the business,” says Sinclair. Against this background, the benefits of SDS are obvious. As Sinclair sums up, SDS solutions not only enhance scalability, they also improve the agility, flexibility and efficiency of the storage ecosystem: “SDS enables users to adapt their storage hardware more easily and accurately to changing data and workloads.”

Mauro Lotti, Storage & Next Gen IT Product Director EMEA at Lenovo, has also noted the transition in the storage market: “New digital applications are

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leading to changes in the ways that data is used. Information is not always available in a structured form as it was in the past. That also changes the demands on storage systems.” Lotti advises companies to consider how their IT infrastructure can be optimised using the latest storage technologies.

SDS in particular has a whole range of potential benefits. First and foremost, companies can use it to simplify their storage infrastructure – in terms of hardware and personnel. Until now, companies have often required multiple teams to manage their storage resources: a server management team, a networking team and a storage team. Using SDS, they can now make significant savings in both manpower and time. The results are faster roll-out for new applications and a shorter time to market. And because the systems are simpler, the admin and operating costs are also reduced.

Lenovo’s advanced SDS solutions

At this early stage in the emergence of SDS, there is neither a standard definition of what the term means nor a list of specific features that distinguish SDS systems. “SDS currently refers to a broad set of storage solutions, and is being leveraged by multiple storage vendors for a variety of storage needs,” observes ESG analyst Scott Sinclair. While some vendors highlight the cost benefits of SDS, others focus on its added flexibility and agility. There is, however, a consistent theme running through all these solutions, namely abstraction. By fully abstracting the storage management layer from the underlying hardware, the storage

infrastructure becomes much more flexible, adaptable and scalable as well as easier to manage and expand.

According to the analysts at ESG, Lenovo is one of very few providers of advanced SDS solutions. As a leading manufacturer of server hardware, Lenovo has focused most of its efforts in the storage sector on the development and integration of cutting-edge SDS solutions. “Thanks to its partnerships with leading SDS solution providers such as Nexenta and Cloudian, Lenovo now has a portfolio of SDS-based solutions covering a wide range of storage capabilities,” says Sinclair.

Lenovo Product Director Mauro Lotti explains: “We’re not a software vendor, so we’re not burdened by having to consider legacy storage products.” This allows Lenovo to partner freely with multiple providers when developing new storage solutions. By combining its own expertise in servers and hardware with software from leading SDS solution providers, Lenovo can create fully tailored offerings.

Lenovo’s StorSelect portfolio currently includes three SDS solutions aimed at different business needs:

• DX8200N: Created in partnership with Nexenta, this appliance supports a range of protocols, including FC, iSCSI, NFS and SMB. It is designed for high-performance transactional workloads such as virtualisation and databases. With its multi-protocol support, it is also ideal for traditional environments or for backup scenarios.

Companies can use SDS to simplify their storage infrastructure.

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• DX8200C: Developed in partnership with Cloudian, this is an object-based storage system designed for massive capacity scale-out content storage. With native support for Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), it is ideal for use in cloud environments. It also supports the sharing of data across multiple data centres and regions.

• DX8200D: Powered by DataCore, this appliance enables users to architect block and file storage for faster performance whilst simplifying operations. This validated, turnkey solution provides easy scalability at a fraction of the cost of legacy systems – without trade-offs in availability, reliability or functionality.

Mauro Lotti from Lenovo believes the development of SDS holds great potential for the future. In particular, he expects to see more innovation in the area of storage management. Although proprietary systems still dominate at the moment, he predicts a switch to open interfaces: “This will enable us to create holistic management systems that allow us to run the entire storage environment through a single interface.”

Another area of future growth is flash-based storage. Although flash-only arrays are already in use, Lotti predicts a major increase in uptake as users require not only greater flexibility, but also faster response times. As delays in access to data become increasingly unacceptable, solid-state drives can offer enormous improvements in speed.

Finally, Lotti sees considerable potential for the development of automation in a number of areas. These include policy-driven processing, automated moving of data based on changing performance requirements and more intelligent de-duplication, and provisioning mechanisms.

“SDS is already a sophisticated technology offering tangible benefits to companies,” says Lotti.Yet its development has only just begun:

“SDS is about more than just the expansion of storage environments – SDS is a paradigm shift ana totally new way of managing data.”